


Study Buddies

by Terravatar (Montsai)



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fluff, Korrasami is Canon, Nerdiness, Partying, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:54:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24897283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Montsai/pseuds/Terravatar
Summary: Korra is a star collegiate lacrosse player, doing her best to balance the sport and her academics.  Meeting Asami works wonders on her chemistry grade, but at the same time makes her brain feel like it's short circuiting.
Relationships: Bolin/Opal (Avatar), Korra/Asami Sato
Comments: 62
Kudos: 373





	1. Jasmine Waves

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! With the re-surge of Avatar related content I've been inspired to write this story. It's loosely based off of my own college experience this past year. Not sure if things will get explicit with this story or not, but you'll see if ratings change, and I'll write a note if they do.
> 
> I hope everyone's been doing well amidst the craziness of the world. If you're new to the fandom, WELCOME! and if you've been here since 2015, well, I've missed you. Korrasami is canon everyone! Love you and hope you enjoy.
> 
> -Montsai

Friday night is finally here, and you feel great. Your first quarter at college was a huge adjustment and kind of a whole disaster, but your first week of classes for the second quarter went really well. There’s some hope that academics won’t absolutely kick your ass this time around.

“Any luck?” Opal asks, raising a brow with expectation, as you enter your dorm room. It’s lit by a warm set of fairy lights that decorate her side of the room. She’s moving back and forth in her chair seemingly trying to do some school work.

You sigh and drop your lacrosse gear. Opal, Bolin, and even Mako have been on your ass about meeting someone since you all got closer after a long english project during the first quarter. Mako has had his own experiences with hook ups here and there, and Opal and Bolin have been dating since high school. You on the other hand haven’t had any spicy experiences since the first quarter started, not even a drunken kiss at a party. You hum trying to make up something, but sadly nothing comes to mind. You’ve been far too caught up with trying to balance lacrosse and school, so girls and guys haven’t really been on your mind. “No,” you reply, then go on to explain how your week was.

Classes this week were all chill, and discussions, labs, and conditioning wouldn’t start till next week. You’ve just spent all the extra time trying to organize everything for classes and lacrosse by keeping track on a calendar and setting deadlines and goals. You don’t want this quarter to be a repeat of the disaster that the last one was. Who knew 10 weeks went by so fast.

“I think you could loosen up a bit, Korra,” Opal swivels slowly in her chair, “It’s only the first week, and so far all you’ve done is school and lacrosse,” she stops spinning to look up at you, “Don’t get me wrong, that’s great and everything, but college is also about socializing and having fun. How about you come with us to a party tonight?”

“I’m not sure, Opal,” you say grabbing a towel, “I could use some rest after practice.”

“Come on, please? Plus, everyone else hasn’t seen you since the quarter has started.”

“That’s a lie,” you reply.” I saw Mako once on my way to class the other day.”

“That doesn’t count,” Opal deadpans.

You sigh, and give in. There’s been so much pressure for you to do well in lacrosse especially since a lot of people are also expecting you to go pro in the long run. Thinking it over you have to agree that you do kinda have a stick up your ass though. Opal is right. You just hope that this party doesn’t suck.

-

This kinda sucks. You’re stuck on the couch in between two couples that are eating each other’s faces. You take a swig of your can of beer and peel yourself off the couch. Looking around the house for Opal, Bolin, and Mako, you don’t see them standing around anywhere, which means they are probably in the crowd of dancing people.

Entering the dance floor section of the house music booms through your ears as you look for your friends. Before you can make any progress, some girl, obviously very drunk, hands you a shot and yells over the music that she wants to dance. You’re about to object when Opal’s words ring in the back of your mind. It takes you a moment to decide, but instead of passing up the girl’s drunken offer, you accept the drink and dance. Eventually you just get lost in the crowd of people dancing and let their movements carry you.

A couple hours into the party you’re feeling pretty drunk off of 6 shots of horrible tasting vodka. You remember taking horrible looking selfies with Opal, Bolin and Mako, and dancing with them. The music and humidity feel like a blanket over all of your senses. You feel kinda dizzy now so you just let yourself sway back and forth to the beat of whatever song is playing. Ultimately the house becomes more packed and your front side is pressed into the girl in front of you. Stumbling as the crowd continues to jerk, you try to back up and lift your arms to give her some space. The crowd doesn’t budge so you lean to her right so she can hear you over the music, “I’m sorry, I’m in your personal space,” you try to yell over the deafening music. “This crowd is packed.” You finish, observing the girl expecting her to turn around and at least respond. All you can really see is her jet black wavy hair shower over her shoulders and back and that she’s wearing a crop top and jeans like everyone else. All colors seem to blend with the different LED lights that hover and change over the dark room.

Instead of responding the girl just takes one of your lifted hands, still facing away from you, and dances to the music. You catch on and follow her rhythm. She still has one of your hands and guides it down to her waist so you let your other follow in suit. You enjoy the dancing, and do your best not to hold her too tight or dance too close so you don’t seem like one of those creeps that these parties are full of. A couple of minutes go by when she unexpectedly turns around to face you. You can tell she’s really pretty, but because of how dark the room is and the flashing LED disco lights you can’t make out any distinguishing features. You’re also pretty drunk so things just seem to be blurring in general. She throws her hands over your shoulders and continues to dance, and at this point you’re in a trance. The only thing is that you can’t tell if it’s because of the alcohol or the girl in front of you. Eventually you lose track of time and the last thing you remember is the faint smell of jasmine that permeates through the gross musk of sweat and alcohol.

The next morning you thank Opal for dragging you out because from what you remember, dancing and drinking was actually fun and not a complete waste of time.

-

The rest of Saturday and Sunday fly by, and before you know it, you’re searching for your phone as it blares at 8:30 a.m.. Opal has 8 a.m.s every Monday, Wednesday and Friday so you’re not afraid of waking her. It’s also known that you sleep like a rock through her alarms so there aren’t any big issues about sleep.

You have class in 30 minutes in Kyoshi Rock Hall for general Chem. It’s a good 10 minute walk and 2 minute bike ride from your set of dorms. You don’t take long to get ready, throwing on a United Republic University sweatshirt and jeans.

Hopping on your bike, you can’t help but recall Opal’s words of wisdom from a couple days ago. Making other friends and socializing beyond the party setting would be great, and study buddies have proven to be necessities, especially with how first quarter English went.

You lock up your bike in front of the hall and breath out. Chemistry is a difficult subject so having someone to at least study with from your section would be great. You’re 5 minutes early and grab a seat near the middle of the auditorium. You’d rather sit on the edges for a quick escape route after lecture, but you hate having to walk over people to get a seat. To save someone else the same pain, you sit farther in.

It’s not long till someone approaches the seat adjacent to you. You feel a bit giddy, ready to try and spark up a conversation. You get a good look at the person, and he’s a tall guy with dark hair that almost looks purple. You’re about to introduce yourself as he takes his seat, but when he makes eye contact with you, he seems to do a double take and looks surprised almost . He quickly composes himself and slicks his hair back. “You must be Korra. I’m Tahno,” he grins and offers his hand in an overly flirtatious manner.

You’re taken aback because you have no idea who the hell this kid is, or why the hell he’s trying to act all suave with you. Instead of taking the offered hand you ask, “How do you know me?” and lift a brow.

“You’re only the best lacrosse player on campus.” He lowers his head and invades your space across the armrest. “Maybe, you could teach me a few tricks?” his brow is raised and eyelids hooded.

You’re disgusted by the guy, but don’t want to back down. Instead you lean in and say, “You wanna know some tricks,” You pause and signify him to move a bit closer, “Here’s trick number one,” you smirk before you spit right in his ear. He looks mortified, and you do your best to hold in a laugh as you quickly grab your bag to move seats as fast as possible so he can’t retaliate in any manner. Now that lecture is about to start though, you have to hop over person after person before you finally-

“Fuck-” Your foot gets caught on a bag, and you can see you’re about to get a face full of armrest. You squeeze every facial feature you have, bracing for impact, but it never comes. Slowly you peek open an eye to look directly at an absolutely stunning girl. Her jet black hair is up in a ponytail but some strands are let loose to frame her face. Her emerald eyes look shocked as her eyebrows are raised and scrunched. She caught your shoulder right before you ate shit. You clear your throat awkwardly and look at the floor as you stabilize yourself. Picking up your head, you force eye contact and say thanks before plopping in the seat left to her. You pull out your notes and whisper to your right as the lecture starts, “Sorry about that, these rows are way too close to each other.”

The girl lets out a small chuckle, “It’s okay, I wouldn’t want to face plant into a chair either.” The comment earns a small smile from you, but you don’t mention anything else as class starts.

Lecture goes on and you do your best to focus, but ever so often you take a peek at the other girl’s notes. Her handwriting is loopy and pretty, and her notes seem really structured. You look down at your own and snicker in your head because of the drastic differences.

Lecture is slowly coming to an end, and you’ve been mentally preparing yourself to talk to the girl for the last 15 minutes. Before you can pack your things and turn to her in hopes of at least introducing yourself, she's faced the other way obviously in a rush to get out. You don’t want to be a burden, plus you can always see her during Wednesday’s lecture so you leave the auditorium trying not to think too much about it. It just bothers you that you can’t help but feel like something familiar faded away as she left.

-

You hate Tuesdays, you’re thinking as your bike wheels move across the pavement. It’s 6:09 p.m., and you’re rushing to Chem discussion which started at 6. You got caught up talking to Opal after bio and forgot about the time. You try not to make a scene as you enter the class room, but of course some people are gonna look because you’re late to the first discussion session of the quarter. You keep your head down as you settle into a desk in the back of the room and pull out your notebook and worksheet.

“Korra?” The TA calls questioningly, checking her attendance list. You nod in reply, slightly more embarrassed now. Discussion goes simply, and you're grabbing your things ready to go when you notice a familiar figure. It’s the girl from yesterday’s lecture, but now you can tell she’s wearing a long black coat over a blouse, jeans, and a burgundy scarf. She’s making her way up to the front of the room. You don’t know how you missed her during discussion, and feel more abashed because she probably noticed you for coming in late. You want to go introduce yourself properly, but your watch pings on your wrist, notifying you that evening conditioning starts in 20 minutes.

You know coach Beifong would kick your ass if she heard you were late. You don’t want to risk being snitched on so you throw your bag over your shoulder and rush to your bike.

It takes 10 minutes to make it to your dorm after discussion, and you drop off your school pack and change into shorts and a muscle T. Even though Tuesdays are jam packed with back to back classes in the afternoon, and you’re mentally exhausted, the idea of being in the gym right now feels great.

It’s a 5 minute ride to the gym, and when you get there Mako, Bolin, and a couple of other lacrosse players are littered around the lobby. Today is an upper body session so for the next hour you’re cycling from the free weights and the bench. Bolin’s spotting you as you’re benching and Mako is working on his shoulders with the free weights. The 3 of you have built a pretty solid routine during fall quarter after you found out you all play lacrosse. You take turns spotting and giving some well needed support, so you always always really enjoy conditioning.

Bolin’s just been talking about how two of his classmates in theater got into a huge fight because someone accidentally got gum in someone else’s hair or something. You’re not really listening as you start your set, but the hair thing reminded you of the girl from chem. “You know there’s this pretty girl in my chem class,” you bring up randomly as you push the bar up.

“What? Korra finally has eyes for someone? Who’s this pretty woman you speak of?” He asks excitedly.

You let out a small huff as you bring the bar down to push up again, “I just said she was pretty. I don’t even know her name.”

“Well the least you could do is describe her. Come on, give me all the details about how she stunned you with a flip of her hair or wink of her eye,” he’s over exaggerating, which makes you want to laugh, but you force yourself to focus on the weight.

“She didn’t woo me, Bo. I just happened to almost eat shit and she caught me,” you’re just a few reps away from finishing your set. “She has green eyes and really nice hair though,” you grit your teeth almost to the end of the set. Your mind wanders a bit and you say “It’s all dark and wavy and...pretty,” through clenched teeth as you lift up your last rep.

As you two switch spots he goes, “You’re telling me she saved you from sudden death, all while showing off her sparkling emeralds and wavy locks? She’s definitely wooing you.” You laugh a bit and punch him on the shoulder.

“Don’t make me add another set of plates, Bolin,” you warn as he reaches up for the bar.

“I didn’t say anything,” he says quietly, finishing his set as fast as possible.

-

You were hoping to see her during chem lecture on Wednesday, but you couldn’t find her amidst the huge auditorium so you just grabbed a random seat and did your best to understand lecture.

Thursday roles around and you just got out of math lecture. It’s three o’clock and you’re pretty sure your lab section starts at 5 so you take the time to watch some Avatar: The Last Air Bender on Netflix back at the dorm. You know that the pretty girl is going to be in your lab section so you plan to leave around 4:45 so you can try and choose her as your lab partner.  
It’s only 4 o’clock when Opal comes back from her own chemistry lecture, and she pokes fun at you for rewatching cartoons at 19 years old. You ignore it and ask how her lecture was. “It was boring as usual, but now I got to get ready for my lab.”

“Wait, you have lab right after lecture? That sucks,” you say as you rest your head back on your pillow.

“No, I have lab from 5 to 8,” she says, organizing her bag and PPE gear for later. “It sucks that labs are three hours long though.”

There’s a pregnant silence between you two as you think. You could’ve sworn your lab would end at 7, and if labs are 3 hours... “Opal, what time is it?” You say getting up out of your bed.

“4:05,” she looks at you questioningly.

“Fuck,” you take a look at your schedule online and realize you had the times all messed up in your head. “I have lab RIGHT NOW,” you’re scrambling to throw your PPE gear and lab manual into your bag.

“At least we’re only like a minute away from the lab buildings,” Opal says reassuringly, “You’ll make it before anyone takes your spot.”

“Hope so,” you say as you run out the door. You ride your bike as fast as you can, and thank god that the labs are literally only a minute ride from the dorms. You pull out your phone to make sure you have the right room and hurry up the stairs as fast as you can. Before you enter the lab room you throw on the PPE gear, and enter completely out of breath.

You sense everyone judging you silently because not only were you late to discussion, but now lab. You do your best to avoid all eye contact, and it feels like you’re doing the walk of shame as you go over to your TA for check in.

“Korra, right?” she looks over her clipboard.

“Yup,” you scratch the back of your neck, “sorry for being late again.”

“It happens to the best of us,” she gives you a small smile that makes you feel a bit better. “You can take a seat by Jin.”

You turn to face the rest of the class finally taking in the rest of your surroundings. You know you’re slightly hoping that Jin is the pretty girl from earlier, but as you scan the room you can tell she isn’t. The girl with pretty eyes and hair already has a partner, but at least their pair sits next to Jin. You make your way over to the empty seat, making sure to pass your really pretty classmate, and when you do she stops you lightly by the arm which makes you freeze. You raise your brows questioningly at her, hoping you don’t look too panicked or scared, and she says, “Your goggles are kinda messed up,” with the smallest smirk.

You reach up to feel them on your face and instantly can tell they’re extremely crooked. You probably couldn’t feel how distorted it was because of the rush you were in. You fix them and say thanks before you take your seat just a few feet away from her. Before the TA starts her spiel you instinctively just turn around and give the girl with wavy black hair another smile in gratitude.

Lab goes by pretty quickly because this week is used to acquaint everyone with all the equipment. You spend an hour and a half going over safety rules and measuring water with different instruments. The last thing left to do is take inventory of all the supplies in your drawers. Your TA comes over one by one to check groups out, and you’re hoping to get out before the pretty girl so you can introduce yourself after lab. She and her lab partner get signed out way before you though. Turns out you and Jin are missing a couple of test tubes, and you have to go down to the stockroom twice because you miscounted the first time. You’re eventually let out, but can’t help feel somewhat disappointed. Every time you even thought about introducing yourself something always seemed to block you. You make it a point to at least talk to her again next week.

Making it back to your dorm, you toss your bag on the floor as you hop onto your bed. You lie there for a second then lift yourself to face Opal who’s at her desk watching YouTube videos. You haven’t mentioned the girl to Opal at all yet and feel like you need to rant about your week so far. Laying back down you just blurt, “There’s this pretty girl in my chem section,” and when you say it out loud you realize how much she’s been on your mind the past few days.


	2. Red Hearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korra gets to hang out with Asami

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo! I'm planning on releasing at least one chapter a week. If there's more demand I'll do my best to do two or three chapters per week till this story is completed. 
> 
> \-- I'd like to apologize for any grammatical errors that take away from the reading experience. I'm doing my best to edit and catch errors, but there always seem to be a couple that completely slip under my radar. 
> 
> Enjoy :)
> 
> -Montsai

“Her name is Asami,” is the first thing you say as you barge into your dorm to see Opal chilling on her bed eating some fire flakes and staring at her phone.

“So you finally talked to her?” she asks. It’s Tuesday of week 3, and you just got done with conditioning so you’re pretty exhausted. 

“Not exactly,” you respond, reaching for your towel. 

“Well, how do you know her name then?” Opal looks over at you and raises a brow confused. “Are you stalking her?” she teases with a dumb grin.

“What? No...I was just paying attention during roll call today in discussion. That’s all.” 

“Stalker,” she teases again. 

“I know a lot of people's names because of roll calls,” you try and retaliate.

“Name one.”

“...John…”

“Korra, you know, I know, you’re just making up bullshit now,” she looks back down at her phone.

“Yeah whatever,” you head out to take a nice shower after a long day. You feel lucky your set of dorms doesn’t run out of hot water, being one of the newer buildings on campus. You’ve heard of some not so fun shower experiences from your teammates that live in the older buildings. All the sweat and grime wash away under the water, and your thoughts begin to wonder as steam saturates your surroundings. You’re really disappointed that you’ve been too chicken to say anything to the girl. There’ve been countless opportunities to approach her, but every time you made an excuse to not try. On Friday and Monday there was lecture, and today you had discussion, yet nothing. 

-

It’s Thursday now, and you’re waiting in the hall for lab to start. Today has been going really well. Throughout the whole day you felt much more energetic and social. There’s just been this surge of confidence within you, and you subtly justify it with the extra time you got to flex in the mirror this morning. You’re talking to one of your other classmates about calculus, and he’s just complaining about the professor, when you spot the girl just over his shoulder. She’s approaching from the other end of the corridor. Her hair is up as it should be for lab, and she’s just wearing a hoodie and skinny jeans. You’ve noticed her pretty much every time you have class, but you still can't get over how good she looks in whatever she wears. You feel almost angry about it but wave the feeling away. Stuck in thought, you don’t notice that you’re staring now, and when she catches you, you feel every fiber in your body freeze. You want to break free but her eyes are entrancing, and you just don’t know what to think- 

“Did you guys hear about the free dinner tonight at the stadium?” another one of your classmates asks and brings you back to reality. 

“Yeah apparently it’s like some incentive to get students to watch the basketball game tonight,” your acquaintance from math recalls. Before you can add on to the conversation, your TA opens up the room and starts checking everyone in. 

Today’s lab will consist of a basic titration. You spend the next 2 hours expelling sodium hydroxide into a flask of acetic acid trying to get the solution to become very faint pink. You and Jin work pretty well together, never over titrating the end point. As you work, you can’t help but think up scenarios where you’re finally talking to Asami after lab. In one case, she’s telling you how cool you are and how she already knows you from lacrosse and has actually watched all your local televised matches and that she wants to get to know you better....

You blink yourself out of your daze as Jin tells you to record a volume. You keep a tab on how Asami is doing with her partner by looking over every now and then. You’re grateful to notice they’re just a step behind you because it gives you the real opportunity to stop her after lab. 

You’re just finishing copying down some data from Jin’s notebook as she’s asking your TA some questions when you see Asami making her way to her own station after grabbing distilled water. Instead of her just walking by, you feel her approach over your right shoulder. You don’t dare to move afraid you might do something wrong, and you wait for her to say something, anything. 

“It’s rude to stare,” she whispers, and you swear to god you can hear her smile as she says it. You see her retreat back to her station and you want to say something back, but you don’t know what to say. You want to say that you didn’t want to come off as rude or creepy, but you also feel fiery and want to respond sarcastically to what you could only assume was her totally teasing you. 

You’re kind of frustrated, but force yourself to focus on finishing up. The last thing to do is clean up your station. You look back to see that Asami is finishing up her experiment too, so you clean as slowly as possible so it doesn’t seem like you’re waiting for her after lab because that’s weird. 

You say a silent prayer as you both seem to finish simultaneously and are heading to grab your back packs at the same time. This is your chance. You want to get back at her sarcastically, but also don't want to annoy her away.

“Hey,” you start extremely nervous. “I didn’t mean to come off as a creep earlier or now or ever, but did you happen to hear about the free dinner tonight?” You manage to shoot her an inviting smile despite feeling like a firecracker is going off everywhere in your body.

“I did actually,” she says, throwing her bag over her shoulder. You note the burgundy accents and gear logo on the bag. “I was planning on going with my roommate actually, but she flaked and left early for the weekend...again.”

“That’s great,” you blurt, and she looks at you confused and offended with scrunched brows. “I mean, yo- you could go with me so neither of us are loners,” you mentally facepalm. 

“Hmm, I don’t know, Loner. You haven’t even introduced yourself yet,” she says looking at you from the side. “Korra, right?” she starts out of the room.

You give yourself another mental facepalm. You can’t believe you asked her out for dinner before officially getting names down. “Yeah, actually,” you say surprised but then also remember the Tahno incident the previous week. “Wait, how’d you know my name?” you ask, curious if your lacrosse game was really that reputable. You catch up to her and take off your goggles now that you’re outside of the lab room.

“It’s sort of hard not to notice a cute girl that’s late to the first discussion and lab sections of the quarter. Not to mention, you kinda totally fell on me during lecture,” she replies, and you’re totally dumbfounded. Part of your ego is hurt because you were expecting her to mention lacrosse or something impressive, not everything embarrassing that happened to you the past week. Wait did she call you cute though? “I’m Asami,” she says nonchalantly, and she takes her goggles off along with her lab coat. 

You clear your throat snapping yourself out of the short daze. “So would you like to be loner Asami tonight or Asami plus some company, watching guys throw a ball around, eating free food?” you ask hoping she says yes.

“Hmmm I don’t know. Loner Asami sounds kinda fun,” she says with a smirk, and you can tell she’s just messing with you at this point. You both have your lab coats off and are starting down the corridor now, and before you can say anything in return she asks, “Where are you from, Korra?” She’s completely changed the topic at hand, but you just go along with it because now you’re finally talking to Asami, the pretty girl with amazing jet black hair that may or may not be totally wooing you according to Bolin.

You clear your throat in hopes your voice won’t crack under the pressure, “The Southern Water Tribe. What about you?”

“I’m a city native,” she replies before she reaches into her bag for her hoodie. You’re just wearing a t-shirt right now, but you’ve always been used to the cold so this winter quarter hasn’t bothered you too much. You make it outside, and now Asami’s real decision has to be made because the way to the gym and the dorms are opposite in reference to the lab buildings. “How do you like the city so far?” she asks as you two approach the fork in the path. “It must be really different.” She hasn’t made a step indicating which way she’s planning on going. Instead she turns to face you, and you realize you’ve been quiet, just thinking about if she’s actually going to go to dinner with you. 

You blink yourself out of the stupor and respond, “I really love this city actually. There’s always something happening.” 

“You’re right about that.” She takes a step to the right, and you thank every single spiritual deity to ever exist because now you’re both headed in the direction of the gym.

-

The walk to the gym is full of small talk about each other’s home town and first college experiences. You make it the gym in what seems to be only 5 minutes compared to the 15 it actually was. 

You both swipe your student id cards and are let into the buffet area set up atop the bleachers. You’re absolutely starving so you just grab 2 of everything and wait on the other side for Asami. When she comes over to you, you look over her plate and notice she also got everything, just not 2 of everything so her plate isn’t almost folding in on its own weight. You lead the way and snatch the seats before anyone else arrives.

“Do you know anything about basketball?” Asami asks.

“I used to play in high school,” you reply. “What about you?”

“Just the basics,” she responds before she starts digging into her food. 

It’s pretty quiet because you both are stuffing your faces after a long day. She finishes before you though, and when you’re not so focused on your plate, you look up to see her watching the game intently. You don’t think too much about it, because what else is there to do at a basketball game besides eat and watch the game. 

You nearly drop your plate though when Asami shouts from the top of her lungs after some guy on your team makes a dunk and gets the foul call. It surprises you more when she yells, “AND ONE!” You never really took her for a sports fan outside of your fantasy about her admiring your own athletic ability, but learning this about her feels sort of like a breath of fresh air. 

You set your food aside and decide to just enjoy the game with her. 

-

The cold winter air surrounds you again as you both start making your way back to the dorms. “You said you knew the _basics_ ,” you comment. “You know the game like you played it.”

“Well I did play a little bit, but never for a real competitive team. I also did cheer in high school, so I was at pretty much every game.”

This girl is literally everyone's picture perfect dream. She seems almost unreal, and you don’t know if you hate it, or hate the fact that you like it. It hurts your head a little bit. “Did you do any other activities or sports in high school?”

“I did a lot of competitive dance. It’s the reason I was on the cheer team in the first place actually. I also loved doing robotics. My team got to travel all the way to Ba Sing Se for a teaching seminar for younger kids.” You notice her eyes sparkle despite the air only being lit by heavily spaced lamp posts. 

“What did you say your major was?”

“Mechanical Engineering.” That explains it. “What was yours?”

“Biology.” 

You two talk the night away, and the walk back to the dorms feels short as your conversation has to end. It’s really surprising how easy it is to talk to Asami. There wasn’t a point where things felt awkward or forced during the whole night, and your mind is just reeling. “I live in Wan hall on the 4th floor if you ever want to stop by... and not be a loner,” she gives you a small smug smile and turns around to leave.

Even though she told you where she lives, obviously meaning she’s down to hang out again, you know it’d be easier if you just had her number. You don’t know why you’re so goddamn nervous though. You spent the whole evening with her but feel a tightening coil in your gut when you think about asking for her number. She’s already making strides to enter her building, and you swear your blood pressure rises. You just blurt “Canigetyournumber.” It feels like you just ripped off a bandage, and now you feel like wincing.

She turns to face you again. Her brows cutely rise a little before her face softens, and she makes steps back towards you. She has her hand out asking for your phone, and all your muscles relax as you absentmindedly hand it over. “We can be study buddies,” she smiles again and hands you your phone back. “I’ll see you later, Korra. Thanks for tonight.” 

She leaves and you swear you see her wink, but your mind feels like it's melting so you don't even think it's processing things correctly. You can’t believe that today just happened. You look down at your phone and see that she left a red heart by her contact name. 

-

“Okay, but does that mean anything, Opal?” When you make it back to your dorm you tell her all about your day. Now you just need advice on understanding Asami’s choice of emojis. Opal’s just been tapping on her phone while you’ve berated her with questions. “Does red mean something different than the other colors?”

“I mean, I would never send someone I didn’t like a red heart emoji.”

“Yeah but like is this flirting or is it just her being her. Or what if she’s just naturally flirty.”

“I can’t really tell, Korra. I don’t even know her...but what I can conclude is that she is a very feminine gal that gets a lot of people’s attention.” Opal’s eyes widen as they stay glued to her phone.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” you approach trying to get a look at her phone too.

“Found her Instagram,” She replies swiftly. Her profile reads _Asami (red heart emoji)_ Bio: _United Republic University ‘23 / (cog emoji)._ Opal scrolls down to see an absolutely stunning feed. There are some really hot photos of her on the beach and on hikes, but also really cute ones of her working on cars and studying. Although there are a lot of different photos, her feed is pulled together by a common filter and burgundy color. There’s a really cute photo of her laughing alongside some other people who all seem to be in a study group together. The caption reads, _Laughing the brain pain away. Good luck on finals everyone <3\. _Looking at other captions, the heart seems commonplace so you make a mental note to not think so hard about the heart by her name in your contacts. “She’s hot, Korra,” Opal says blatantly.

“Yeah, I know,” you plop onto your bed and pull out your phone. 

“I bet her DMs are full of thirsty people.”

You open instagram to look at your own profile. You don’t post much as your feed consists of only 3 pictures. The first one is an action shot of you during lacrosse, the second one of you and your parents during high school graduation, and the third is a selfie of you, and in the background Opal, Bolin, and Mako are asleep in front of their computers. Nothing about your online presence really screams hotness. “Opal, give me your honest opinion, am I hot?”

“What?”

“You have to answer yes or no.” 

“I mean I guess.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“Okay if I am being absolutely honest, you’re pretty hot, Korra. You’re built, have a cute smile, and actually have goals in life. What else could a person want.”

“But like what if you didn’t know me.”

“Are you asking me to be shallow?”

“Kind of I guess… just answer the question.”

“I mean when I first met you, you were kind of intimidating in a cool way. I mean like I said before, you’re built, plus you give off a big dick energy I guess… Now I’m just feeding your ego.”

“I don’t have an ego. I’m just trying to think if I’m in this girl’s league," you say catching tunnel vision for your ceiling.

“Korra shut up. This isn’t high school. Just talk to her more.”

Yeah talking… You can do talking. That’s not hard. You talk all the time. 


	3. Friendly Competition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korra doesn't know why she continues to hang out with Asami considering the other girl tends to slightly infuriate her and makes her choke on her own spit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SRY for the delaaay! I got really caught up redrawing one of my favorite Korrasami screen caps, and when I say caught up, I mean my face has been glued to my ipad for the past couple of days. Anyways here you gooo :)
> 
> *again sry for grammatical mistakes. I am one simple bean :)

It’s currently Tuesday the next week. You’re sitting in the middle of calculus staring at your phone in between your hands. Since your dinner with Asami you’ve only exchanged a couple of words with each other at the end of lectures. You’ve spent the last weekend doing work for every class except chemistry in hopes to schedule a study session with asami. Now you just need to ask her, but that same coiling feeling is happening to your stomach, and you’re getting flustered and don’t even know what to type into text. You force yourself to breath easy and start with a simple 

K: hey

Okay that’s a good start you think as you start another message. Before you can finish what you had planned, the read receipt appears and those 3 ominous dots rattle, showing that Asami is virtually in your presence.

A: whatsup :)

You feel yourself slightly relax.

K: did you do the post lab already?

A: I don’t know

K: Wats that supposed to mean?

A: depends on if you did yours

K: well i haven’t yet

A: im not doing it for you :P

K: I was gonna ask if you wanted to do it together dummy 

You watch those dots shake then disappear, and your stomach drops. Maybe you went a little far calling her dumb. You’re called back into lecture as you hear your professor mention something about midterms. You hurry to scribble the date they’re on and the chapters they’ll cover. He goes over some more logistics then releases the class. 

You throw everything into your bag and go back to your phone to check if Asami replied.

A: i’m free later tonight if that works?

A smile plasters itself on your face

K: Sounds good we can meet up after i have conditioning :)

-

Some hours run by, and now you’re riding on over to chem discussion. Confidence is running through your veins, but you’re also a bit nervous. Although you know you’re not going to be late you still have to rush to make it just on time because of your back to back schedule. You give yourself a mental fist bump when you make it in time and are able to snag the empty seat by Asami. Dropping your bag onto the floor and pulling out your materials, you shoot her a small smile, and she does the same.

After taking attendance your TA starts class. “Today everyone should have week 4’s discussion worksheet to work on. If you guys have any questions don’t be afraid to ask your neighbor or me. I’ll give the answers for the questions 15 minutes till the end of the session as usual.”

You look down at your paper then steal a glance at asami. You consider bothering her, but feel reluctant considering she looks concentrated already. You delve into your work too, starting by making the page unique with your name. You fly through a couple of problems before something small hits your shoulder, and you know Asami threw something at you. You do your best to look irritated by giving Asami the side eye. She throws you a cute smile, tucks in a loose strand of hair and says, “sorry, muscle spasm,” as she reaches down to grab the eraser she threw at you, and a smile creeps onto your lips. You roll your eyes at the childish act. “Hey,” her voice pokes at you for attention, and you can’t help but turn your head to show her your full attention. As you do, you notice how her long eyelashes are and how they are curled up and perfectly accentuated by her mascara. It really brings out her eyes. Those green eyes that are indescribably captivat-

“I was thinking we could just work on the lab in the lounge area on my floor. It’s always empty on tuesday nights because everyone is in the rec building for the weekly smash bros tournament.”

You gulp your thoughts down. How could you already be falling so hard? You don’t even really KNOW this girl…she’s just really pretty, that’s it... just talk to her… “Yeah, sounds great. I’ll be over a bit after 8. Is that a good time?”

“Sounds perfect,” she smiles and turns back to her paper. 

-

After taking the fastest shower known to man after conditioning you speed to throw on some sweats and a muscle T.

“Have fun and keep those clothes on,” Opal winks teasingly from her desk.

“We’re just doing lab work,” you roll your eyes stuffing your laptop into your bag. 

“Chemistry riiiight?” Opal winks so much you think she’s glitching, and it makes you laugh.

“I’ll see you later,” you exit the room. 

You’re now standing in front of Asami’s door, and your heart is pounding against your chest. You blame it on the amount of steps it took you to make it up to the fourth floor. Her dorm door is decorated cutely. Like all the other buildings each floor has some kind mascot assigned to them by their RAs. Yours is a polar bear, and Asami’s is an adorable robotic ferret. You give kudos to the RA who came up with that.

Go time. 

You knock on the door and feel like you’re holding your breath in anticipation. The door opens, and you clench your jaw as hard as possible to ensure that you don’t gawk. Asami is wearing a cropped spaghetti strap shirt that hugs her breasts showing the lack of a bra and a baggy pair of grey sweats. Her hair is thrown into a messy bun, and this is the first time you’ve seen her with glasses and without makeup. 

“Hold this,” she hands you a plastic bag containing what seems like take out. 

“What’s this?”

“Foood,” she says grabbing her folder and laptop from her desk and walks towards you. “You know, so we don’t starve. We can eat it after we finish the post lab as a nice treat,” she passes you through the corridor, and you swear there’s something so familiar about the situation. You just can’t put your finger on it so you ignore the weird deja vu and follow her into the lounge just across from her room. 

“You didn’t have to get me anything.” You feel extreme gratitude, but also burdensome considering she went out of her way to pay for your meal. 

“I wanted to,” she offers a small smile that eases you. “Plus now you owe me.”

You drop your things onto the table. “Hmm I never agreed to this.”

“Too late.”

-

“Okay but how did I get a 222% error?” You say rubbing your temples. You and Asami have been diligently working for the past hour and have reached the end of the post lab questions. Your comment triggers Asami’s head to pop up away from her screen.

Her brows do that cute scrunchy thing, and you mentally facepalm because you hate that you keep noticing that. “Can I see your calculations?” she asks openly. You hand her your notebook, and she reads it over. After a couple minutes, she says “You’re off by 5 decimal places because you forgot to multiply by powers of ten, but besides that you’re good,” she hands it back over. 

You let out a sigh, “222 percent... uuugh.” You nod your head back towards your laptop to finish up with the free response, and as you do you notice Asami smirking at you. The smugness of it irritates you, but she’s also extremely cute in those glasses and her hair sprawling out of her bun- omg. You let a silent huff out through your nose. Focus Korra. 

The next 10 minutes are just filled with intense typing noises as you both finish up the post lab. 

“Finally,” Asami drops back into her chair. You guys look at the plastic bag from earlier, and you let her reach for it to distribute the goods. “I got some cold noodles because I knew we were going to be here a while,” she said, handing you a cup and chopsticks. 

“Smart.”

“Always,” she replies with a wink. 

“Thanks,” you say reluctantly with an eye roll in response to her wink. You haven’t noticed how hungry you’ve been till you take your first bite. You’re completely fixated on the food till you become aware of the silence that surrounds the slurp of your noodles. You lift your eyes to see Asami staring at you. She has her container and chopsticks ready to go, but it’s like she’s caught in a freeze frame. Despite that, it’s like her eyes are saying a million things to you...you just can’t decipher them. You gulp down. “You know it’s rude to stare,” you lift a brow challenging her gaze. 

She blinks out of her apparent daze. “You’re right,” she says and turns to start on her food. “I just won’t tell you when you have food in your teeth.”

You feel blood rush to your cheeks, and your hand shoots up to cover your mouth. “I have-,” you notice Asami’s smile grow extremely smug as she attempts to grab a bit of food. Whipping out your phone, you inspect your mouth to find nothing. She is totally messing with you. You pull out a small noodle from your cup as inconspicuous as possible with a mischievous grin creeping onto your own lips. 

Asami isn’t even looking at you when she says, “Korra, I swear if you throw that at me, you will have many regrets.” 

You lower the noodle slowly, and you see Asami show a small grin in victory. “Watch your back Asami. You’ll never know when I’m going to strike,” you return to eating normally.

“I think we should just relax.” She sits up to press some buttons on her keyboard. “I don’t think I have the energy to battle with the best lacrosse player on campus,” she says casually before she presses another key and music starts playing. You choke on your noodles, and pray that Asami didn’t notice. You guys talked for a lot last Thursday, but you never mentioned lacrosse beyond the fact that you played it. The only way she could’ve known that is if she actually doesn’t and was just joking around, or she actually saw your stats, and that takes some research… which means she’s interested in you-

You need to slow down your train of thought. You literally just officially met her like a couple days ago. Tahno made the same comment a couple weeks ago so it should mean nothing, but you can’t help but feel on top of the world after hearing Asami say it.

“This is my chill playlist,” she sinks back into the couch and continues to eat.

-

It’s been around 20 minutes and you’ve both just finished the noodles. Asami’s music taste so far is an 8/10 for you. The only reason you’re not giving it a better rating is because so far you’ve only heard one playlist, and it’s a little on the sad side. Sometimes you suggest songs, and for a while you guys just sit there and vibe.

The casual conversations get more interesting when Asami asks, “So what’s the craziest thing you’ve done so far?”

The question catches you off guard so it takes some time for you to think. As you do so Asami’s head nods left and right like a ticking clock. Her messy hair subtly bounces and her eyes seem to sparkle with the change of the lighting angles. “Honestly I’ve been pretty tame actually,” you admit. “I mean I’ve gone to a couple parties, but I don’t really enjoy drinking or that type of setting too much.”

“You’re kidding me right?” Asami sounds surprised which surprises you. “I mean you haven’t even barfed yet or kissed a stranger?”

“Do I look like the type?” you raise your brows wondering if that was who Asami thought you were. 

“Hmmm I guess I just expected every star studded college athlete to be more on the wild side.” 

“Well what’s so wild about you, miss perfect? Do you kiss strangers and puke at parties?”

“For your information I can keep my alcohol down,” she says proudly. “I don’t kiss strangers, but there was this one guy last quarter that I sort of had a thing with.”

You’re intrigued. So it’s confirmed she’s attracted to men. That doesn’t mean you don’t have a chance though considering sexuality is a large spectrum, and you yourself are bisexual, but It doesn’t fail to waver your confidence just a bit. “What does ‘sort of had a thing’ mean?” you ask.

“I hooked up with this one guy during fall quarter, but he actually had feelings for me and proceeded to bother me for a week so I did my best to disappear from his radar. Every now and then he’s able to find me around campus to talk, but I keep it short.”

“You’re definitely a charmer,” you joke, mocking her. 

She rolls her eyes, “You’ve never had sex with me,” she retorts, and you swear this is the 5th time you could’ve choked tonight. “Plus, you’re the one who asked me to be on this ‘study date’.” 

Those words ring in your ear, and it feels like they’re sandwiching your brain. “First of all, I never called it that, second of all, I just asked to do the post lab, and third of all I-I don’t want to have sex with you.” You do your best to counter, but you know you sound kind of dumb.

There’s a short silence. Asami was the one who brought the food and initiated the talking and music after you both already finished… Maybe you were totally charming her and she’s actually trying to woo you-

Asami finally breaks the silence. “Whatever you say, Korra. Just don’t be asking for my sign anytime soon,” she has that smug smile, and you swear you want to knock it right off her face, but at the same time you think it’s kinda hot, which definitely isn’t fair.

“Wouldn’t even think about,” you retort although you’re guessing what her sign is in your head now. 

\- 

“We will not fail you, Korra,” Bolin slaps his arm around Mako’s shoulders. 

“Remind us of why we are doing this though,” Mako says holding his camera.

“Well you both and Opal have been on my ass about spicing up my love life a little bit, and I thought what better way of doing that-,

“Then thirst trapping?,” Bolin finishes for you.

“I wasn’t going to say that, but you’re not wrong, Bo.”

It’s Wednesday night and you impulsively rented a weight room in a gym downtown just so you could take photos of you working out. Today you sat next to Asami in lecture and although you really enjoy her company and hanging out, you can’t help but feel frustrated by her. Not in the sexual way either you think. Sometimes her cheekiness just rubs you the wrong way. Like yeah she’s hot and smart, but that doesn’t mean everyone is going to bow down to her, especially you.

“Exactly how will posting pictures spice things up? Shouldn’t you just be going on dates or going to more parties? And what happened with Asami? I thought you guys had a thing?” Mako compiles.

At the mention of Asami you feel your face warm. “Uuhm we’re just friends,” you try to mask your flush. “Plus stepping up my Instagram game would definitely help. I mean how many girls are in your dms because of the shirtless pics on your feed, Mako?”

“I guess I see your point. Let’s do this.”

Bolin has a lot of experience with modeling so as you’re doing exercises he points out poses to hold and helps Mako get good angles. 

You do a full body workout in three outfits. For the upper body sets you’re in a blue sports bra and shorts; for core in a red set, and legs in a darker blue one. You guys spend the first 30 minutes doing workouts specifically for photos. After you three determine you’ve got enough pictures, Bolin and Mako join you in working out to get the most out of your money having rented the space for the hour. 

Bolin tells you which photos he thinks you should post and also gives you some tips about building your page. You all agree to post the picture of you doing a pullup with a big smile on your face caused by a really bad joke made by Bolin. It’s the perfect mix of cute and ‘wow look at my abs’. 

You post it later that night when you make it back to the dorm. It’s not long till a certain girl likes it and comments ‘HOT’ with heart eye emojis, and that’s the only notification that earns the smallest smile out of you.

-

It’s Thursday again. You’re getting ready to leave for lab when Opal comes back.

“You’re not going to believe who I saw earlier.”

You just raise a brow in question to let her finish explaining.

“I was on my way to the student community center, and I saw Asami. She was with this guy though, and it looked like they were in a heated argument. I didn’t want to look like a total creep so I just kept walking, you know, but do you know if she has a boyfriend?”

“I don’t think she has a boyfriend, but she did mention this guy that’s been all over her recently.” You think back to her hook up she told you about.

“That makes sense. Just make sure she doesn’t totally play with your heart.”

“I don’t even know if I really really like her like that yet anyways. Plus what heart are you talking about?” You zip up your bag getting ready to leave.

Opal just rolls her eyes as you exit the room. 

You make it to lab just as your TA is letting everyone in. Asami arrives right after you, and after both of you have checked in she whispers over your shoulder, “I bet I could do more pull-ups.” referring to your Instagram post the other night.

“Bet,” you turn to see her retreating over to her seat. She gives you one last smirk before your TA starts instruction.

Today’s lab is going straight over your head. You thank Raava that Jin is there to help you go through the steps even though you have no idea why you’re doing what you’re doing. You did the pre-lab and everything, but for some reason things just aren’t clicking. Chemistry just has the ability to do that to people. 

During part of it you’re sharing a centrifuge with Asami and her partner. You try to put your centrifuge in, but it doesn’t bude so you try using some force. It’s not till Asami points out that their tube was in that slot already, that you successfully put it in another one. The ordeal makes her laugh, but leaves you embarrassed because you spent 5 minutes trying to put in a centrifuge tube.

The three hours go by really quickly considering you don’t know what’s happening. You’ve stolen some glances over at Asami every now and then, and sometimes you’d get caught, but you’re always met with a small smile or smug eyebrow raise that you reluctantly enjoy.

“Okay, I barely understood that lab,” you express as you two exit the room. 

“Do you want me to help you go through it? We can just finish the post-lab tonight.” The suggestion surprises you. You feel elated at the idea of being able to hang out with Asami some more, but you feel drained of your ability to do anything besides eat and sleep.

“I don’t know, my brain is pretty fried. I could really just go for some food right now,” you respond.

“How about this. We go back to the dorms to drop our things off, and if I can do more pullups than you, after dinner we come back and finish post lab.”

“How do you know I didn’t already have dinner plans?” 

“I don’t,” she admits. “But I do know you aren’t the type to back out of a bet,” her brow rises boldly.

“Don’t you think it’s a bit early to finish the post lab considering we just finished lab?” You really don’t want to do any more work. 

“It’s better this way. It’s all fresh in our brains right now,” she points out. You ponder for a couple moments then concede. It’s not like she can do more pull ups than you anyways.

“Hmmmm...Okay bet, but a fair warning, Asami. I am the queen of pull ups,” you flex to further your point.

After you drop your things off at your dorm, you go to Asami’s. 

“You know I didn’t really think about where we would do the pull-ups-”

“I got it covered.” She pulls out a pull up contraption that attaches to her door frame. “Sometimes I’m in my dorm working on projects for prolonged amounts of time. This comes in handy.” You’re surprised, but that doesn’t cause your confidence to waver. “So would you like to go first?”

“And win this bet? Of course.” You hop onto the bar and successfully get up to 25 pull ups before you can’t get your chin over the bar. You finish and present her your absolutely charming pompous grin.

“Impressive,” Asami says as she approaches the bar. 

As she counts through a few reps you say, “I doubt you can beat 25. Bolin and Mako can’t even do it-.” Asami’s face is very calm as she pulls her body up and down with no effort. She winks at you as she approaches 20 pull ups. 

“And that’s 26,” she says, eyeing you as she pulls her body up one last time. “What was that about beating you?”

“How-?”

“Come on let’s go get some burgers. I am craving them,” Asami pulls your arm as she leads you out of the dorm room, and you’re in absolute awe.


	4. Study "Buddies"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're friends and they study, but what does it mean if you kiss each other in a drunken haze?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi :)  
> this chapter is just a bit longer and was a bit more difficult to write because I wanted to get my descriptions down well. I also keep updates about this fic on my tumblr so if my breaks in between chapters are longer than a week please look for updates there.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter. Personally my favorite of the fic so far.
> 
> *sry for any grammatical errors <3

It’s Sunday afternoon, and you’re at Bolin and Mako’s dorm along with Opal playing some Uno and sipping on capri suns when your phone buzzes. It’s Asami.

A: Midterm is this friday :O

You smile unknowingly and respond

K: yea so fast :((

A: I’m gonna build us a study routine  
A: we are going to ace this

K: ur such a nerd

A: im a cool nerd :P

You roll your eyes-

“Earth to Korra,” Bolin is waving his hand in front of your face.

Mako says, “Your turn, and guess who has uno,” holding up one card.

You look down at the hand you have and see that all you have is 4 yellow draw two cards and a blue reverse which doesn’t match the pile which is currently green. You reach to draw another card and instantly smirk devilishly seeing that you got a draw four. You place it changing the color to yellow then instantly stack up your draw twos so that Mako now has 13 cards before he starts his turn.

“You weren’t going to win that easily,” you say.

“That was just luck,” he responds. “Plus if Asami keeps texting, you would have to forfeit out of brain malfunction,” he teases you.

“Why, I-” you coil up reading to launch a punch into that dumb shoulder of his when Opal pulls you back.

“He’s just jealous you get to hang out with the gorgeous Asami Sato, while he is stuck tutoring Wu in his criminal justice classes.” 

“Am not,” he crosses his arms. “Wu isn’t even that bad….” there’s radio silence before everyone bursts into laughter except Mako.

You guys finish up the game and Bolin actually ends up winning. For the rest of the day all you have planned is watching movies with the krew and doing some studying. 

Asami texts you again during your twilight marathon.

A: okay so I actually made a study plan that should work with your practices and conditioning.  
(attatched schedule)

K: I can’t believe you actually did this omg

A: I told you ACE

You read over the schedule a bit more closely.

K:... first study sesh is tonight? AND we work for 4 hours at the least EVERYDAY?

A: you got it soldier ;)

K: smh there better be snacks

A: of course I’ll be there ;)

K: barf I meant food

A: ;) ;)

K: ASAMI

A: lmaooo see you at 8  
A: there will be actual snacks promise ;P

K: see u neeerd

You just finish Eclipse when it turns 7:40ish. You announce to the krew that you’re going to study chem and leave them to finish up the movies. Back at your dorm you switch into sweats and a hoodie, the only appropriate attire for studying until you drop. You make your way over to Asami’s dorm. 

Before you knock on the door you brace yourself. She’s just physical perfection… that’s it…

When you finally knock and Asami opens the door, you see that she’s also just wearing a hoodie but instead of sweats like you, she’s paired them with a set of plaid pj bottoms. Her hair is down, looking lush as always, and she’s wearing her glasses. “You can come in,” she says. “My roommate is gone for the weekend.” You walk past her. “As always,” she finishes closing the door behind the both of you. 

“You know, I’ve never seen your roommate, like ever,” you respond, dropping your bag on the floor.

“Sometimes I feel the same way. I practically have the room to myself,” she adds, sitting on her small sofa under her lofted bed. You follow her lead and take the spot next to her. 

There’s a moment of peaceful silence between you two till you ask, “So what’s the game plan captain?”

“I like the sound of captain,” she winks over at you with a smirk. You just roll your eyes. You’ve become a bit more used to her playful flirting. “Here,” she gets up and retrieves a pretty large white board that was stored between her desk and the wall. She lifts it up to show the schedule then flips it around to show tonight’s goals. She smiles proudly at her work, and it’s the simplest thing, but you feel another one of those tugs in your chest. You have to gulp down your nervousness.

“You’re such a nerd,” you say as you grab your bag. The coming hours fill themselves up with course material. Every now and then Asami playfully flirts with you, and you hate that you enjoy it.

-

For the past couple of days you’ve been around Asami non-stop studying. Normally you’d feel absolutely brain dead, but Asami’s study routine and her company has made the whole ordeal almost fun. 

It’s Wednesday night, and you’re going over some chemistry notes in bed when Opal starts, “You’ve been hanging out with Asami a lot.”

The comment gets your attention. “Hmm yeah. She’s been helping me with Chem. Our Midterm is this Friday,” you hold up your phone to show off your quizlet flashcards.

“You know what we should do Friday night?” she asks. You answer her with a questioning countenance. “Party… and bring Asami.” 

“I don’t know if she’s really into that,” you respond.

“Okay well, you guys are totally free to leave if you’re not having fun, but it’d be a good way to relieve our stress after midterms. Please at least invite her. She should hang out with us more.”

You can only imagine how partying with Asami would be. So far the other girl has proven to be extremely confident, forward, actually fun, and also frustrating...at least for you. Thinking about it, you wouldn’t be surprised if the girl did end up kissing a stranger despite what she told you earlier. 

After a few moments you say, “I’ll try,” before you go back to studying. 

-

It’s Thursday night. Lab is done with, and now you’re at the dining commons with Asami grabbing dinner before you two plan on studying for the rest of the night. 

“On a scale from one to ten, how do you feel for tomorrow?” she asks, taking a sip of her water. You both got pasta but instead of water you got your favorite, Dr. Pepper.

After gulping down your bite you respond, “Ten out of ten.”

“Good, because all this studying better pay off. I can’t wait to finally relax a little bit when it’s over.”

“Actually,” you clear your throat to avoid it cracking. Asami still hasn’t let you live down the last time your voice croaked despite the fact you claimed you were choking. “I’m going to a party tomorrow night with some of my friends. Do you wanna tag along?”

“Oooh, Korra’s plus one,” she smiles suggestively which sends a small shiver down your spine. For the past week you’ve constantly been around her, but there are certain things that you can’t shake. You just tell yourself it’s just because she’s really pretty which is just a fact, but when she looks at you, you can’t help but feel butterflies. It irritates you, but at the same time feels exhilaratingly addictive.

You roll your eyes trying to wave off that fluttering feeling. “So is that a yes?”

“Sure, but you better bring your inner party animal, Korra. I want to have some fun,”

“I’m always fun,” you reply defensively. “You’re the one always dragging me around to study.”

“Having fun is more fulfilling when you're slightly deprived of it for a prolonged amount of time. That’s my motto,” she jokes sarcastically, earning another eye roll from you. She smiles proudly. The way her eyes squint and her cheeks perk up and how her lips curve... -You have to squeeze your eyes shut because you feel like you might combust if you look too long. A quick moment goes by, and you reopen them to look at your pasta instead of Asami. “Why do you do that?” she asks, but now she sounds sincerely curious, not smuggish or teasingly.

At that moment it’s like the cogs in your brain are gunked up with debris so you have to clear your throat to gather your brain cells to attention. “My eyes get dry sometimes,” you excuse yourself while still focusing on your pasta.

“I have some eye drops if you need them.”

-

“Okay but explain how and why this element’s configuration is the exception to the rule?” You ask Asami. You guys are back at her dorm studying side by side on the small sofa that fits under her lofted bed.

She scoots closer to you so your sides are flush and she brings your notebook over so that it’s in the center of both of you. She begins explaining, but all you can really focus on is her warmth. She smells like Jasmine as always, and you feel like your side is being lit up by fireworks.

“Korra,” Asami is looking at you questioningly, and it takes you a bit longer to process because of how close her face is. You’re getting more frustrated because before, being around Asami wasn’t this difficulte. You could still cognitively function, but now with her so close to you, it’s like the lights in your brain weren’t shut off but combusted with sparks flying everywhere.

“Sorry, I totally got none of that,” you admit, reaching to rub the back of your neck, embarrassed. 

She puts her hand on your knee, and you can only hope that the heat you feel in your cheeks isn’t visible. “Focus, Korra. I know you can get this,” she encourages and you just want to melt away. You just nod in response and try your best to retain everything she’s explaining.

You and Asami spend the next couple hours continuing your overview of the course so far with key questions and flashcards. You only realize it’s already one o’clock in the morning when your watch vibrates on the hour, and as if on cue Asami lets out a small yawn. Before you can say anything, she rests her head on your shoulder. It takes you a moment to react, but you decide to rest yours on her head in response. It feels natural and platonic...until you feel Asami scoot closer into your side and wrap your arm up. Looking down at her you feel, not a tug, but a prolonged stretch on your heartstrings. Her eyelashes look so soft, and her hands firm around your upper arm. 

“Tired?” you say softly.

“Very… but we still have a little more to go over,” she responds with her eyes closed and breathing continuing to slow down.

“I think we’re perfectly set.” Being like this with her is intoxicating. You would want to stay here forever, but it’s late and your midterm is tomorrow. “Come on,” you say lifting your head and pulling away from her. As you move to stand up, Asami tries to keep a hold of you, but only manages to have your hand by the time you’re fully removed from the couch. 

“It’s cold now,” she murmurs before she pulls into herself and goes into the fetal position. 

You roll your eyes. “Come on,” you reach under her to carry her up into your arms. Instead of struggling against you like you were expecting, she nudges into your shoulder. It’s a small gesture, but you can’t help thinking about how adorable it is. “You need to sleep,” you say walking over to push over a chair to use as a stool. You get up and manage to plop Asami onto her bed. She turns over to grab her blanket then quickly turns back to face you. She’s obviously exhausted. 

“Thanks, Korra,” she smiles. It’s genuine and sweet. You smile back at her. You want to hold her face and kiss her forehead because of how peaceful she is right now, but you deny the urge as you hop down. 

“Goodnight ‘Sami.” You call back as you turn off the lights and leave the girl to sleep.

-

“How do you think you did?” Asami runs up to you as everyone is exiting the Auditorium. 

“Brain is fried. But I think I did really well,” you respond. “Thanks to you,” you smile back at her.

“Great,” she hooks her arm under yours, and you can’t help but recall how touchy she’s been recently. Maybe that’s just how she is around her friends when she gets comfortable with them. “You owe me, and I want some Boba.”

You initially want to argue against it, but she’s got a valid point. “Okay. Boba it is.” 

You two walk over to the Bubble Tea place right on the edge of campus. “What do you usually get?” you ask.

“Hmmm I usually like fruity drinks or a nice original milk tea,” she replies. “What about you?”

“Taro and Thai milk teas are my favorites,” you answer.

You both approach the small cafe, and it’s only when you reach to open the door with your left hand that you realize Asami has been connected to you for the past 20 minutes. She only lets you go when she reaches into her purse for a stamp card. 

You two approach the cashier who’s an older looking college student with some stubble. You watch him eye Asami up and down before he says, “What may I get you, gorgeous?” Asami only offers a straight faced tight smile before she orders. You realize how often she probably gets comments like that, and it makes you angry. You quickly order your drink and pay for the two of you, and it surprises you when you feel Asami hook her arm back around yours. 

When your drinks are ready you two walk over still connected to pick them up. The cashier hands them over winks at Asami and tells her to call him as he left his number on her drink sticker. She pulls your arm tighter, “Tell that to my girlfriend,” she says blatantly. The guy's face is priceless and it only gets better when you glare him down and threaten to hit him.

You two leave the shop chuckling your asses off.

-

“Do you think you’ll be able to keep your cool when you see Asami all dressed up and Stunning?” Opal asks as you both prepare for the party.

“I’ve survived her Instagram,” you answer. “I think I can survive this.” You throw on a leather jacket. “Plus if I can’t, there is always booze.”

“Good point.”

You two finish up, and the boys along with Asami are outside your dorm. The second you open the door you feel like your spirit hopped itself off a cliff. Asami looks absolutely stunning. She’s wearing a cropped blouse that hugs her bust perfectly, and the metallic sheen just adds to the wow factor. Her makeup is also darker which is really different from her everyday look. It’s like before, she could peer into your soul , but now she can do that plus grab a hold of it and control it just by looking at you.

“WOW everyone looks so good,” Bolin exclaims. 

The four of you catch a ride with one of Mako’s upperclassmen friends, and arrive promptly. 

The party is like every other one. The living room of the house is crowded with people grinding, dancing, twerking, and drinking. Music numbs every sense on the dance floor, and it reverberates through the rest of the house. In the kitchen people are lining up shots on the counter, and in the remaining areas inside the house people are making out or just hanging around drinking. In the backyard there’s a group of people playing beer pong and smoking weed. 

Mako goes to join his buddies playing beer pong, and Opal drags Bolin onto the dance floor. 

“First one to barf up their alcohol loses,” Asami grabs your hand and leads you into the kitchen.

“Not fair,” you reply. “I already know I’m going to lose.”

She hands you a shot. “Let’s hope you’re not a sore loser,” she winks and downs her shot. Usually you’d just be frustrated with her smugness, but right now it’s extremely attractive. 

“I guess we can only wait and see,” you answer, downing yours. Asami grabs another shot and looks at you challengingly before she gets it down. You respond by downing another one.

You continue to take shots with her, but give up on the 8th round. You know your limits, and you also don’t want to be shit faced. The buzz is already prominent as you feel a bit dizzy. Asami keeps going till her tenth round, and you feel impressed, but also extremely confused at how her body can take so much alcohol. 

After her last shot she smiles up at you and cutely says, “Asami is the winner,” obviously a little bit more than buzzed. The act is adorable despite her looking like she could literally kill you, and your chest tightens.

You just roll your eyes and take her hand. “Come on let’s dance, miss winner.”

When you walk over to the living room, you really feel the alcohol start to hit you. The room never feels stable, but you feel Asami tighten her grip on your hand as you move through the crowd of people. She grounds you, and you pull her closer so the masses don't separate you two.

Her front side is close now. You were already getting warm being surrounded by lots of people and the alcohol burning in your stomach, but now you feel yourself get even hotter. You feel like you want to disappear for a moment, but Asami begins swaying back and forth, all the while still holding your hand. You smile at her, funny yet extremely attractive, performance. You join in which causes her to grin.

You two eventually fall into rhythm and there's no exchange of words. For a while you just let yourself feel the music like flowing water. The bass hits hard and shakes the house as you move in tune with it. Asami flows with you, not necessarily in sync like a mirror but an opposite complement. Usually looking at the other girl for so long would have you malfunctioning, but right now everything just feels right. Those green eyes feel so comfortable.

You don’t notice you two are getting closer till she’s removed her hand from yours only to hold onto your arm. You can’t tell if it was you or her that initiated the pull, but you like her closer. She guides your hands onto her hips as you both continue to sway to the rhythm. The music is numbing your ears. The dim lighting and blurring crowd pushes everything into the background except for Asami. Her eyes seem to twinkle against the bouncing LEDS, and her red lips are tugged into a small smile. You can’t read her countenance. You could never read her exactly. It startles you when she leans forward, but you let out a silent sigh of relief or disappointment when she moves to your right ear. “You’re a great dancer, miss queen of lacrosse,” she slurs.

You turn your head to face her ear. The smell of jasmine permeates your senses, and it feels like a blanket. Her jet black waves cover her ear so you take the opportunity to tuck it in. Her skin is soft to the touch. “I told you I was fun,” you reply as your head pounds from the proximity and alcohol.

You two are still moving to the rhythm, and you feel Asami slightly smile as she grazes your ear with her lips. “I can match that.” A shiver hits your spine amidst the heat of the house. She retracts from your ear and turns so that your bodies are flush, your front to her backside. The move gives you the strongest deja vu, and the familiarity slightly numbs the pounding of your head. You realize why you feel like you’ve lived this scene once Asami pushes further into you moving in rhythm. At first you don’t know how to respond, but she pulls you back into reality with her sway.

She grabs hold of your hands and puts them on the front of her hips as you two continue to dance. One of your two hands are still in contact while her other is in the air flowing with the vibrations in the air. From her fingers to her hips everything moves like silk against your body. 

Asami’s hand over yours on her hip encourages you to grip harder, and you respond accordingly. The rhythmic swaying and flush contact is coiling you up. The room continues to fade into the background as Asami straightens up to produce more contact between you two. There’s not an ounce of anxiety in your body, and you have to thank the alcohol. You lean forward to say something, but it’s only when you reach her ear that you realize you don’t know exactly what to say. She’s a lot of things, and right now every one of your senses is full of her. Your brain has finally decided to not work.

She only turns her head closer to yours in response. Your lips are just grazing her cheek now, and you can’t help but think about actually kissing her soft skin. Her thumb caresses over the skin of your hand invitingly. With the courage of the dim room, roaring sounds, and booze you lay a soft kiss on her cheek. You swear you feel her lean into you, but the room is also spinning, and your head is still pounding. 

She takes your hands and slowly turns to face you. She wraps herself up in you. You guys are still bending to the music as she settles her hands onto your collar bone. She comes closer so that your foreheads are touching. Slowly, she nudges your nose, inching closer and closer. You gulp down and your eyes waver from the gleam of her eyes to her full lips. 

In one smooth movement she reaches up for your jaw and closes the distance. It’s a soft timid kiss, and you don’t know what to feel. Her soft thumb stroking your cheek, her plush lips, her taste, her closeness. Soon the softness fades as she deepens the kiss and encases your upper lip. You respond by taking a hold of her bottom lip, and soon you two move in rhythm again amongst the booming music and rocking crowd. Your dancing lips added to the tandem of movements between you two. 

One of Asami’s hands lowers to grip onto one of your biceps while her other one guides yours to her bare waist. Your hand burns against her delicate skin. You grasp at her body to try and ground yourself, but then Asami takes the opportunity to graze over your lips with her tongue. You feel like you're combusting, but manage to welcome her actions by stimulating her eagerness with your own. She tastes of alcohol and mint, and you can’t get enough. The way your face feels in her hand, the way her skin feels under your fingertips, the way her lips move in rhythm. You want to just hold onto this, and you do.

Everything feels right until you feel someone grab your shoulder and swing you around. The action rips you away from Asami, and the room is literally spinning, and you can’t find the hold of anything stable. It’s worse when you feel the bluntness of a fist knock your jaw back. A spike of pain hits, only slightly numbed by the liquor, and you feel gravity over take you.


	5. Rams and Quiet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korra and Asami butt heads in mutual frustration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I hope this chapter answers some questions! 
> 
> Sorry for grammatical errors again <3 also Korra's coming to netlix in the US :)
> 
> If you want to talk more about avatar or anything feel free to message me on tumblr (@montsai) or twitter (@terravatar)

In your drunken haze you anticipate your meeting with the hard floor, but it doesn’t come. You can only assume Asami has caught you as her smell encases your senses once again. The throbbing of your jaw has begun to mix with the pounding of your head, and all your senses are muddied. Your eyes stay hooded to block any strobe lights from doing more damage to your mental capacity.

The only reason you know Asami is yelling at your assailant is because you can feel the abrupt and intense vibrations from her chest that your back is leaned up on. The thundering music and your deteriorating senses make it impossible to hear exactly what she says. The only thing you can comprehend is her yelling “fuck you,” before you completely black out.

-

The first thing you begin to feel again is the sharpness of ice on your skin. Then you begin to feel thumping behind your eyes. You’re quick to diagnose your hangover, but are puzzled by the coldness spreading upon your jaw. Opening your eyes against the grogginess of your body you wake up to find yourself back in your dorm. 

You jerk up causing more pounding between your skull and find Opal sitting at her desk eating a cup of noodles.

“Opal?” you ask, your voice hoarse with sleep.

She quickly spins to see you. “Korra! How do you feel?” She’s quickly gotten up to grab a glass of water for you. “Do you remember last night?”

Last night… You take a moment to search your memory to piece together the way you feel right now. “I think so,” you reach up to feel your jaw and touch your lips in memory of last night’s sensations. “Can you fill me in though?” you ask in need for reassurance against the liquor.

“Well, first things first is you made out with Asami.” Opal takes your arm in excitement. “You have to remember that.” she adds. You nod abashed but urge her to continue the story. “At the party me and Bolin pushed through the crowd when we heard yelling. When we got the noise we saw you out cold and Asami yelling at this guy.” 

“Did you get to see who she was yelling at?” you ask feeling ounces of rage file into your bloodstream. “Is she okay? Did he try to hit her too?” You can feel the ounces turn into pints.

“Asami knows how to handle herself. You should’ve seen it,” her eyes get big.

“Sorry,” you reply, “but I kinda passed out.” Opal rolls her eyes at you.

“Well, after cursing at him and setting you down, she slapped him and insulted the hell out of him in front of everyone.” You raise your brow questioningly. “You know, calling his penis small and insulting his fragile masculinity in front of everyone.” Opal finished as if it were obvious. 

“Wait wait, who was he? And why did he punch me though?” you ask, still confused.

“Oh I guess I forgot to mention that part. You remember that guy I told you about?” she asks. You respond again only with a questioning countenance. “I think it was the same guy I saw her arguing with a while back,” she explains, and you finally make the connection. Asami talked about her hookup like it wasn’t that big of a deal. You never really gave it a lot of thought because everyone has hookups here and there, and that’s normal. This guy was proving to be more obsessive than Asami let on. It doesn’t sit right with you. “I guess he was super jealous or something,” Opal finishes and goes back to her desk to finish her noodles.

There’s a moment of silence as you take some time to digest everything she’s told you. 

You throw your feet over the side of your bed, feeling the effects of last night. Despite the aches you decide you should check up on Asami and get more clarification. Nobody punches you like that and gets away with it. As you throw together your things to take a shower Opal asks where you’re planned on going so quickly, and you fill her in.

“Hope you don’t make anything awkward,” she teases.

“I’m just going to make sure she’s okay,” you roll your eyes, but the comment actually makes you nervous. You didn’t exactly think about how your conversation with Asami would go considering that you two made out just some hours ago. Just thinking about the kiss between you two makes you extremely flustered. You shake your head, trying to recompose yourself. It’s just the right thing to check up on her.

After you shower and throw on some casual clothes you head over to Asami’s dorm. On the way over you mentally repeat that you’re not going to make things awkward. Just going to make sure she’s feeling okay, and to figure out who this guy really is. That’s it.

You make it to her room, and right before you go for the knock, the door is opened abruptly revealing a freshly bathed Asami by the looks of her damp hair. She’s wearing sweats and a t-shirt, and lacks any of her usual make-up. You gulp down hard. Seeing her, you’re reminded of her soft touch, moving hips, sweet lips, and dancing tong-

“Korra,” her mouth tugs into a small smile. “I was just going to see you,” she steps forward and you feel your heart start to race despite all your efforts to be calm. You clench your jaw in hopes to contain yourself, but forget about how sore it is. You wince slightly as Asami reaches up to examine the bruise. She takes you into her room by the hand. It’s a quick act, but her touch is just another reminder of the night before. “You should’ve just stayed in bed and iced the bruise,” she says honestly sitting you down on her couch. 

“I wanted to check and make sure you were okay,” you respond quietly as she grabs ice from her mini fridge. 

She returns with a small ice pack, and you study her countenance as she takes a seat next to you. She almost seems sad, but you can’t seem to comprehend her expression completely. She gives you a soft smile before she scoots closer to inspect your wound. Your face in her firm yet soft hold feels even better sober. You notice a smirk grow onto her lips. “What’s so funny?” you ask interrogatively looking into her eyes that still show signs of worry and maybe guilt.

“I don’t think I was the one who really needed checking up on,” she replies, laying the ice pack on your bruise causing you to flinch slightly. 

“Well, it’s always good to double check,” you respond, reaching up to hold the ice pack yourself. For a moment your faces and bodies are close. Her lips still haunt yours as your eyes glaze over them in the present. You think her eyes do the same, but that’s just what you think. You turn your body away from her, afraid to suggest anything pertaining to the night before for things could become awkward. 

“Who was this asshole anyways?” you ask, trying to sound normal.

There’s a short pause between you two before Asami runs her hands through her hair and lets out a sigh. “His name is Chan.”

“This is the guy you hooked up with? He seems so obsessive,” you respond thinking you have the situation pinned down.

“I wish it was just a hookup,” she says quietly. The comment catches you off guard indicating your assumptions were wrong all along. Who else would this guy be? And if it’s the same guy Opal was talking about why is he still bothering Asami?

“This isn’t the hookup guy you told me about?”

“No, Chan is my ex. We were on and off for a while. I didn’t think he would do anything this stupid.” She looks back at you. “I’m sorry, Korra,” she apologizes so softly the atmosphere feels like a woolen blanket. 

You give back a small smile, trying to make her feel better, “It’s okay. I’ve felt worse punches from sparring with Mako and Bolin for fun.” There’s a pregnant pause, and you can tell how worried Asami is by her looks although she pulls off a small smile before laying her head on your shoulder. “Also no one gets away with punching me like that. Not a fair fight at all.”

Asami doesn’t respond verbally, and you look down to see her eyes closed, and brows knitted in tension. You let your shoulders relax and take in the silence. You revel in the feeling of her, but can’t help feel confused at the same time. Things almost feel the same between you, as if the only thing that happened last night was you getting sucker punched, and the kiss was a shared fantasy that couldn’t be true. You don’t know how you should feel exactly.

“I still have a headache,” she states candidly.

“Me too,” you’re reminded of the pulse between your eyes, and you close them in hopes to ease the pain. 

-

When your senses start awakening the first thing you notice is the intoxicating smell of sweet jasmine. As you continue breathing you notice the tickle hair around her nose and mouth. You pry your eyes open.

Asami’s head has slid onto your chest, into your neck, and her arms have wrapped around you in search of warmth during her slumber. Looking down at her you see a girl of angelic like features, but laugh to yourself knowing her true capabilities. She could pluck at your heartstrings like a simple harp, make your knees weak with a simple stare, and frustrate you in more ways than one. You look up and pray to the spirits for some sanity, and are met with more feelings of confusion and frustration. Knowing this girl held so much power over you almost felt defeating. You’ve opened up during your drunken stupor, letting her feel you as her intoxicating hold coaxed your own longing, but now you feel like a common shoulder to lean on. 

You look back at Asami to see her deep in sleep. You move as slowly as possible to pull away from her grasp. Once free you take her back into your arms and settle her onto her bed, letting her rest properly. Before your mind can even wander over her peaceful looks and splayed hair, you rip your vision away and leave her to her dreams. You don’t vacate the room without placing an Advil and cup of water on her desk.

-

It’s been maybe 2 hours in the gym now. You’re drenched in sweat and have been at the punching bag for the past hour. Your punches are still ferocious as the first throws, and you’re doing anything you can to keep your mind focused on something other than Asami and last night.

You’ve finally metabolized the remnants of the alcohol, but despite the dissipation of the ache behind your eyes you can’t help but still feel like your head isn’t screwed on right. It’s not everyday that you have to process kissing one of your friends while drunk off your ass. Not to mention you actually have feelings for her, and her ex totally fucked you over in front of everyone. Even though Opal filled in the next parts, knowing this dumb Chan guy got the best of you in front of everyone still irritates you. 

The punching bag is propelled back against your fist. You can’t even really begin to process your kiss last night. It wasn’t even just a kiss, but a full blown make out session. The way Asami’s hands felt against your skin, the way her lips fit right next to yours in a rhythmic dance… The way she didn’t say anything about it earlier today. Confusion floods your thoughts endlessly. So you focus harder on your combos and the bag. Girls do crazy things. You’ve heard some weird things about what girl best friends have done with each other. Maybe the kiss was nothing. Maybe it was just to have fun. Your fists make contact again in frustration. 

Asami’s soft smile floods your memory. She could be so sweet when she wasn’t making you feel frustrated with her blatant flirting. The way she made sure you both were eating and taking care of your health, all the while studying your asses off for chem. The way she did her best to plan ahead not only for herself, but also for you. How she did it was beyond you considering how lacrosse was your life and engineering was hers.

You find yourself feeling head over heels again, and immediately try to stop the train, but your memory keeps repeating that smile of hers along with her soft touch and sweet smell.

Punch, punch, punch. You repeat.

Right, left, right. Repeat

Left, right, left. Repeat

-

It’s late when you make it back to your dorm, probably around eleven. 

It’s been a couple of days since you’ve last talked with Asami. You’ve done your best to avoid her by going to extra practices and conditioning slots. You’ve even gone as far as skipping discussion to evade her presence. You just felt like your mind was never in the right place to have a normal conversation with her. It’s better to be absent than extremely awkward. You try to tell yourself that, but just end up missing her presence more as days continue to move.

You open your door slowly just in case Opal has already retired for the night. 

The first crack of the door reveals the lights are on so you enter, careless about the noise. 

You expect to find Opal at her desk, maybe doing some last minute work when your stomach drops. The only other occupant dangles her legs over the side of your bed as those black waves bundled up into a scrunchie bob left to right to a tuneless song. 

At the noise of the door, her eyes hover straight to yours. Her expression is soft and apologetic.

“Hey,” you start quietly, afraid your breath might ignite the atmosphere between you two. “Sorry if I didn’t see your texts or anything. I’ve been really busy with lacrosse and conditioning.” You say cursing the red notifications you've been constantly ignoring. 

“Korra.” Your name rolls off her tongue and pierces your heart as she calls for your full attention. She’s upset, and you can’t help but just want to hold her and make everything alright again, but you’re just so confused. You thought maybe having some space to recollect would be good, but she seems hurt. You let your bags fall off your shoulder as she continues. “I just wanted to say sorry about the other night,” her head hangs, but her eyes search yours for some kind of response. “I don’t want things to be weird.” She’s talking as if she’s done something totally insane, but now you see your distance is to blame for this reaction.

You lag, not sure how to respond, and after a moment you finally stutter, “Di- do you mean the kiss, or me getting punched because I don’t- I um-…,” you instantly reach for the back of your neck and curse mentally. How could you sound so dumb. This is why you were avoiding her. Your inability to communicate earns you a small smile and pluck at the heart.

“I mean the kiss is sort of the reason you got punched,” she replies cohesively. You walk up and take a seat next to her, leaving a gap as caution. She notices the space, but doesn’t acknowledge it in any manner. You don’t want things to be awkward, but you are also afraid that Friday night’s events were simply influenced by the booze and not any feelings she could have for you.

“But you didn’t punch me,” you answer plainly. It’s a simple fact that passes your lips without any emotional connotation. For a moment it’s quiet for your ears, but then you can feel the room charge and become loud.

“But if I didn’t kiss you, you wouldn’t have gotten punched.” Instead of guilt, her voice projected a familiar frustration, one like when you two would argue about chemistry and a disagreement ensued over dumb rules and exceptions. 

“But if that Chan guy wasn’t an asshole, I wouldn’t have been punched,” you assert.

“But if I didn’t date that asshole, you wouldn’t have been punched,” she contends.

“You didn’t make him an asshole.” Although you two are throwing words back and forth in what seems to be an argument, this is the most normal thing that’s happened between you two since Friday night. 

“I associated with that asshole.” Now you’re just frustrated that she keeps trying to take the blame for something she had no control over. 

“Asami.”

“Korra.” 

The room feels as if two rams have been fighting this whole time, but the atmosphere switches on a dime as soon as your eyes find hers. Those dumb eyes that feel like they’re looking straight into you. Those eyes that seem like they know just exactly how to make your knees weak. 

Neither of you speak a word, but you feel like a loading gun. You knit your eyes in contention, and Asami raises one in response. 

You can’t take this. You fall back into your bed in resignation, and Asami follows along, bringing silence. The next couple of minutes threaten to eat you up, but staring into the blank ceiling you feel more able to speak coherently. 

“I’m sorry,” you break the stillness, and don’t know where to go, but words eventually slip off your tongue with ease. “I’m sorry for making things weird, but I’m just so confused. You flirt with me all the time, but I think that’s just you being you, but you also look at me a certain way that makes my chest hurt, and the way you kissed me was just- I don’t know.” Words are now spilling out of your mouth. “I just think you’re really pretty, but I also know a lot of people think that too, but I also like how determined and nerdy you are, but that’s something everyone could admire from you. I just feel like when you look at me I don’t know what to do or what to say I’m just- I’m just-ugh.” You let your eyes close afraid of her response, but even more afraid of the silence that blankets the next couple of seconds.

You swear those seconds turn into minutes when you're forced to peek an eye over at Asami. You find her turned facing you. Her expression has softened, and her eyes seem to wander all over your own features. 

There’s only a split second between you scrunching your brows in confusion and Asami’s lips finding yours.


	6. Reeling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are up in the air, but they're soon grounded, clear, and happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG IM SO SORRY FOR MAKING YOU ALL WAIT! You know life do be getting hard lmaoooo.... anyways I hope this chapter makes it up to you :)
> 
> WARNING: It gets steamy in the like full on smut kjldfljkf.... this is my first time writing smut soo that's just a heads up :)
> 
> As always sorry for any grammatical errors!

Your legs burn numb with adrenaline. Your blood runs with confidence. This is your part of the field. You're the right winged attacker, and the ball is cradled on the end of your lacrosse stick. A defender is coming for a tackle from your left, but you doge her swiftly like the wind then coil your arm to shoot a goal. 

This goal will end the game, and win you the match by one. As the clock ticks down you lurch the ball forward with all your might. It zips through every opponent and betters the goalie, sinking into the back of the net. 

Your muscles relax in a split second of relief, but tense once again in excitement as your teammates tackle you with affection. This game isn’t the most important considering it’s still preseason, but the adrenaline and tension of the close match was exhilarating for everyone, especially the spectators.

Once you’ve finished with the post game huddle and team routine you put your gear away in the locker room and head back to meet your friends. Opal, Mako, Bolin, and Asami give you more hugs and smiles. 

As you all prepare to leave to get some grub a soft tap on your shoulder stops you as your friends continue talking amongst themselves oblivious to you lagging. You turn to see a sweet looking girl probably your age, but shorter and with a soft complexion. She introduces herself as Jin and you reply kindly. Her fair skin doesn’t do a good job of hiding her blush at your response. 

“I-,I was actually wondering if you’d like to get dinner or something. I’m a huge fan,” she says nervously. 

You’re extremely flattered, but are not sure how to properly reject the girl. You think about telling her you have a girlfriend, but that title isn’t official. You and Asami have just been a “thing” for a couple of weeks and neither of you brought up the topic-

“Hey,” her soft voice pierces your thoughts. Asami’s hand slips around your waist and your head turns to see her smiling down at the other girl. Her countenance obviously sending a message. “Who’s this?”

You snap out of your daze and feel bad for how small Jin looks in response to Asami’s onslaught of intimidating energy.

“This is Jin. She was just telling me how big of a fan she was.” You send Jin a small smile of reassurance, but also make it a point to lean into Asami to make things more clear.

“I should get going,” she responds on que. “Congrats again,” she smiles and turns on her heel.

“You didn’t have to be so aggressive with the intimidation,” you tease Asami as you two catch up with your friends.

She drifts into you and softly clutches your arm. “I can’t be having anyone steal you away so quickly,” she says plucking at every one of your heart strings. 

-

You’ve sunken into Asami’s couch under her bed. Your brain struggles to recite chemistry as your eyes bore into the page in front of you. “It’s the ‘but there’s always an exception to the rule’ for me,” you say absentmindedly, studying over a page of ‘exceptions’ even harder. 

You’re so focused, you don’t notice the creak of Asami’s chair or the sound of her steps until your paper is slowly sliding up out of your hands. Your eyes follow the paper up until she catches them with her own. The corner of her lip is tugged into a smirk. Usually those lips would entice you within a split second, but right now your brain is malfunctioning over the exceptions of the octet rule. “Asami, I really need that. There are like 20 exceptions I need to memorize,” you say reaching up to grab the paper back only to fail as she reels it further away.

Asami says nothing as she traps you between her thighs. She’s in a crop top that doesn’t leave a lot to the imagination despite its loose material and sweat pants that hang loosely off her hips. You squeeze your eyes trying to recite the exceptions in your head, doing your best to keep your brain from mush. 

Of course you fail miserably when her fingers land on your neck and her lips graze your ear. “It’s 19 for this class, to be exact,” she kisses your neck which flicks the switch for your brain. 

Your senses feel hyper focused everywhere she touches you. Her soft lips kiss your neck slowly in a line over your pulse. Her hands lay gently on your sternum as her fingers caress your collarbone. Her delicate touch sends explosive signals throughout your nervous system. You reach for her waist instinctively. Her soft kisses have turned needy by the time she’s reached your jaw. 

She leans back drinking in the sight of you. You do the same letting your eyes run over the curves of her body. Every dip and bend teasing you, and your stomach flips seeing her eyes darken. She comes back down to close the distance. Her parted lips meet yours and you can feel her hunger behind the force of the kiss. She quickly persuades your lips apart with her tongue, and you feel like liquid under her, muddied yet caged by those thighs. Her tongue continues to dance with yours as you hook your hands under those enticing legs. 

Asami lets out a small inflection into your mouth as she quickly wraps her arms over your shoulder. You smile against her mouth, laying her flat.

It’s been a few weeks since you’ve been together and the most you’ve ever done were really steamy make out sessions usually cut short because of practice, class, clubs, etc. Today was supposed to be dedicated to studying the night away for chemistry. Instead now you feel very keen on only studying everything about Asami’s body.

You continue the kiss, letting your hands roam. It’s an experiment, meant to teach you about how Asami reacts under your touch. You begin at her hips as you hold her down. You’re met with some resistance as she squirms under your strength, and her hands reach out for your forearms. You move methodically to her abdomen as she runs her hand up towards your bicep. You gradually pass over her ribs, feeling her breath in sync with her against your lips. With her other hand, she snakes under your shirts and reaches your back only to pull you closer to her. You drag up the side of her obliques which earns you a small hitch. 

You let your hands play there and drift your lips over her jaw down to her neck. You can feel her breath quicken in a tame fashion until your lips come in contact with the spot right under her ear. She lets out a small moan that encourages you to explore further. You finally let your free hand wander over Asami’s chest as your other continues to keep you balanced . You give in ample squeeze then run your thumb over her hardened nipple. You continue to coil the iron spring, tending to Asami like this until she breathes out your name.

“What do you want?” You murmur against her neck. Your hand begins its descent, already knowing her answer, at an agonizing pace.

“Fuck me.” 

Your hand responds, slipping easily under her sweats. 

Your fingers ghost over her panties as you feel the vibration of her humming response.

Her hand on your back pulls you closer as her other now searches your front, sliding over your abs up towards your breasts. Her touch is driving you insane, but the way she tries to grind against you paired with her small moans makes you want to take control and see her completely unraveled. 

The only space between you two occurs when you slide down her garments exposing her bottom half completely. She quickly reels you back in as her legs close around your waist. You suck her peaks as your fingers run through her glistening folds and meet briefly at her clit. 

Just that small action earns you a louder moan and a closer pull. 

“Please.”

Asami doesn’t need to say anything more. Your two digits slide with ease and the hilt of your palm meets her bundle of nerves. Her fingers dig into your forearm and back as she tries to steady herself. After the initial contact she seems to be much more in control as she begins to rock against your hand. 

Your fingers curl and slowly pump in search of that spot. Asami’s breath is hot and haggard. She starts breathing dirty sweet language as you tend to her body. With one particular stroke her breath is caught and she’s unable to do anything except angle herself against your hand as you continue to give slow strokes.

“Right there,” she bucks under you for more contact. 

The act makes you go faster. You witness Asami losing control under your touch as she grinds rapidly for her release. 

She’s so close, but you stop your working fingers and use your other hand to hold her hips down. She looks up at you pleadingly, but your only response is methodically curling your fingers back to that specific spot. Your hand begins working in her like she’s never known. Her hips struggle under your other hand, and she’s clawing at the edge of the couch.

She’s at a complete loss of control as the only coherent thing that leaves her lips are breathy “fucks.” With another successful curl she reels under you. Her climax is loud as you collapse towards her to ride it out. She contracts against your fingers and bucks against your hand wrapping her arms under yours for stability against her crashing wave.

Her breathing slows down eventually and you retract your hand tasting her as she watches you. 

“I am, going to, fuck you.” Her voice is husky and full of challenge.

-

Your senses start ringing as Asami lurches up next to you. Your mind is only half conscious and begs you to fall back asleep until Asami shakes you. 

“God you sleep like a rock,” her voice comes as a whisper which is weird considering it’s just you two in her dorm. “Korra you need to move.” Now her voice sounds urgent.

Groggily to pull yourself up to ask what’s wrong when the banging on her door answers your question before it leaves your lips. 

Asami quickly throws her clothes back on and indicates for you to hide up on her raised bed. You throw on your own garments as quickly as possible in a race against the banging on her door. 

By now your senses have caught up. It’s late. “Asami,” you loudly whisper. “Who-

“Asami, I know you’re in there. Please.” There’s a male voice pleading behind the door.

You climb up onto Asami’s bed and cover yourself in her sheets laying as flat as possible. Only your ears can absorb any information now.

“Chan, it’s late. You can’t keep doing this.”

He’s done this before? How many times…

“Please just let me in. I have some of your favorites. I’m so sorry.” You can hear him slump against the door in despair. “Let’s work this out Asami.”

“Chan we’re done. We’ve been done. Please just leave me alone. It’s too late for this.”

“Take the gifts, at least.” He sounds completely defeated.

At that you hear the door click open.

“Asami, please.” You hear his voice more clearly and it gets closer. You feel your muscles tense and begin to burn. There’s some scuffling.

“Chan stop.” More scuffling. You hear a smack that sounds like a sloppy kiss. You could only imagine though. You want to drop down there and beat the shit out of this Chan guy, but before you can even take the blanket off of you, you hear a body hit the floor. According to the deep grunt it seems like Asami took care of the situation. 

“I’m done fucking with you Chan. Leave.” Pure authority runs with her words.

You wait a little longer anticipating his response. “You need me,” is the last thing you hear before the door clicks again.

As soon as the coast is clear you hop down to find Asami collecting a pile of candy back into a small bucket. 

“I want to knock his teeth in,” you say bluntly looking over at a very tired looking Asami. The sight makes you slightly angry considering you both should still be sleeping. The couch definitely wasn’t the comfiest though. You walk over and take her into your arms. “You should get some actual sleep.” She snuggles into you and hums in agreement. “Like in your bed.” You start leading her over to the small ladder. 

“Stay, please,” she squeezes. 

-

You let out a grunt as your quads burn against the weight of the bar on your shoulders. “I could just punch his face in,” you say out loud for Bolin and Mako to hear.

“I can’t say I condone violence, but he did throw the first punch,” Bolin responds. “You know, when you were totally wasted.”

“You really don’t need to mention that, Bo,” you deadpan.

“If you really think that’ll solve this problem, I’m behind you. I just think it’d be smarter to get the scoop on this guy. You know, get to know what his problem really is.” Mako explains.

You’ve finished your set and move to add more weight on the bar for Bolin. 

“As much as I’d love to just beat him up, and that be the end of the story, I think you’re right Mako.”

“There’s a first time for everything,” Bolin teases.

“Shut up Bo,” He rolls his eyes. 

“How are we gonna do it though?” you ask. “Chan knows my face, and I know word is spreading about me and Asami so it can’t be me.”

“Me and Bolin can do it. We can get all buddy buddy and talk about girls and all that stuff.” 

“It’s not really a secret that we’re all best friends though,” you answer reluctantly. “With a quick search through your instagrams he’ll know.”

“How about we go UNDERCOVER,” Bolin pushes up against the metal.

“We could just make a fake ig,” Mako adds.

You’re hesitant because you don’t want this guy to explode again. You have no idea how far he’s able to go, and up till now he’s only proven to be an emotional wild card.

“Okay, but you need to be careful.”

“Of course Captain,” Mako salutes mockingly. 

“I can add another set of plates for your set if you want,” you glare. 

“No thanks, I don’t want to die.”

-

It’s late now. It’s been a few days since the last Chan incident, but you couldn’t help but rant to Opal too. You swivel in your chair mirroring her while she munches on some twizzlers. “Okay but what are you guys? Is anything official yet? It has been like a month now, AND you guys have for sure boned.”

The bluntness of Opals statement causes your cheeks to heat up. “We haven’t put a label on anything, but Asami and I are pretty much exclusive.” You state feeling like it’s obvious. She makes you feel like no one else. How could she be doing that to anyone else-

“Does Asami know that?”

“What are you talking about, Opal?”

“I mean you mentioned that it seemed like Chan had been over a couple times that one night you were at her place. Who’s to say, they haven’t been hooking on and off again,” she explains her thought process. “It could be like one of those dramas that glorify toxic relationships through sex.” The sentence opens a flood gate of misgiving. 

“Maybe before we were together they did, but I doubt Asami would ever do that.” Now doubt begins to run rampant through your head. Maybe she would? No, she’s only ever been honest, critical, and caring to you. After watching your games, she’d give honest criticism to make you better. The same went for chemistry and any other way she could help you be a better you. She was always there cheering you on working alongside you. She’d never-

“Well with how Chan has been acting maybe she’s been banging both of you and saying it’s not exclusive…” You meet Opal’s eyes. You can feel despair washing over your bones and coating your skin.

“I was just theorizing of course,” she perks up. “Hopefully the boys bring back some solid info. Plus, Korra,” she looks at you softly, “Just talk to her.”

“Thanks, that part actually helps. Not the theorizing or any of that stuff. That just hurt me.”

-

After your talk with Opal, you make it your first priority to sit down with Asami. It’s been a couple of days, but you finally get to meet her for some coffee after classes. You walk into the homie cafe just on the outskirts of campus. Your nose is quickly filled with the warm smell of brew, and you look around to find Asami patiently waiting, staring into the distance past an adjacent window.

Your approach catches her attention. “Is everything alright?” she asks with her brows knitted in concern.

You offer her a small smile, “Yeah, yeah I just wanted to talk, is all.” You’re nervous. 

“Here,” she nudges a coffee towards you, and it’s just how you’ve always had your coffee. Asami would know after countless study nights. “Sooo what do you want to talk about?”

You bring up Chan again and immediately her expression falls. You reiterate Opal’s spiel, but do your best to sound non accusing, just cautious. “I just want to know if you’re serious about us,” you finish smally.

Asami reaches out for your hand, “Korr-”

“Asami!” Your head whips. Chan is heaving and as the scene plays out Mako and Bolin follow but freeze as there’s now an audience watching.

Before anyone else can get a word in, Bolin runs over to you loudly whispering as fast as his lips allow. “We kinda lost our cover, because he was saying some really derogatory stuff which made me mad, and he’s honestly such an asshole, so I kinda said something along the lines of ‘that’s why Asami’s with Korra and gags at the thought of you,’ I’m really sorry, but he’s really an asshole and I’m down with the fight plan.” 

“Fight plan?” Asami eye’s you confused and angry at everything unraveling. “What’s happening?”

Chan is quick to chime in, “Asami, please don’t tell me you’re actually dating her,” he exclaims with distaste. “She sent her little minions to me to get the scoop on you.” He twists the narrative.

Asami takes in the setting. Her hand still holds onto yours like a safe line. “Asami that’s not true,” you squeeze. “I came here to talk to you. The only ‘scoop’ I want comes straight from you. You know that.”

“What about them?” Her volume is kept low, reserved for only you.

“I just wanted to know what his deal wa-.”

Before you can continue your explanation Chan’s hand on your shoulder forces you up to attention.

“Stop touching her. She doesn’t like that,” he announces loud enough for the whole cafe to hear.

“What the fuck is your-,” He swings. This time you’re prepared. You duck easily. 

“Why you-,” he rams you with his body into an empty table. Your back clenches against the pain, but you manage to throw his body off. You take some time to reclaim your bearings and rise back to height. In the short amount of time he’s retrieved a chair “Asami, is that really what you want?” He sounds delirious now. 

Patrons grab their coffees and laptops, moving in a wave to the other side of the cafe.

“Chan,” Asami’s voice cuts through the chaotic air and his head flies to face her jades. “What is wrong with you?” His countenance contorts as he whips back to you. He only responds with a powerful swing of the chair. You thank the spirits for all the training you did growing up. Without your reflexes your sides would’ve been bruised badly with the imprint of chair legs. Instead of hitting you the chair shatters and brings down an industrial styled shelf.

His miss leaves him wide open for a punch to the jaw. You take it, steeling your fists against his chin. The hit isn’t enough to knock him out but he stumbles back. You’ve only angered the bull.

Before he can lung back up at you the scene becomes more hectic than ever. Police officers push through the crowd of people and taze Chan like no tomorrow. His body goes limp. It’s not long till he’s being carried away and stuffed into the back of a cop car.

“Sorry you had to experience that kid,” the apparent chief slaps her hand on your shoulder. She compliments your reflexes and gives some explanation about how Chan will probably be expelled because of damage to University property or something like that. Her words seem to pass through your ears just barely being processed as everything is still fresh. It’s like trying to type more letters into a jammed typewriter. The chief offers one last shoulder pat before leaving the premises.

You mind is still reeling at everything that just happened. Bolin slams into you, and next thing you know Mako is also at your side. “I can’t believe Chief Beifong was here for this,” he gushes. “Her track record is crazy.”

“Ahem.” the boys part, revealing Asami. A contrite smile falls on her lips. There’s only a split second of quiet before you both reach for each other. Her hands in yours. You both jump at the chance to apologize for everything. The ‘sorry’ coming out in sync between your lips. 

The scene around you dissolves. The frightened patrons move back into their spots, the baristas clean up the mess, and Bolin and Mako announce their departure.

It’s just you and Asami again. With you in her hands, she leads you back to your surprisingly undisturbed table. Coffees still waiting like nothing happened. Holding you close she squeezes your hand and kisses you softly on the cheek. “I am serious about you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANKS FOR READING! I've been going through it with quarantine recently so if you've followed this story since the beginning QUADRUPLE thanks <3! Hope you stay safe and take care :)

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to comment what you liked, what you didn't like, and everything in between. My tumblr is the same as my ao3 handle so if you want to talk more I'm also there :D
> 
> -Montsai


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